Finding footing on the farm

Big leap from city life to working the soil offers a rocky road

By Kristen V. Brown

Updated
7:49 pm EDT, Thursday, June 6, 2013

Thad Simerly plants seeds at the farm where he and his wife are renting land on Thursday, April 25, 2013 in Red Hook, NY. The couple is in their first season of farming, after moving to the Hudson Valley from NYC. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union) less

Thad Simerly plants seeds at the farm where he and his wife are renting land on Thursday, April 25, 2013 in Red Hook, NY. The couple is in their first season of farming, after moving to the Hudson Valley from ... more

Photo: Paul Buckowski

Photo: Paul Buckowski

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Thad Simerly plants seeds at the farm where he and his wife are renting land on Thursday, April 25, 2013 in Red Hook, NY. The couple is in their first season of farming, after moving to the Hudson Valley from NYC. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union) less

Thad Simerly plants seeds at the farm where he and his wife are renting land on Thursday, April 25, 2013 in Red Hook, NY. The couple is in their first season of farming, after moving to the Hudson Valley from ... more

Photo: Paul Buckowski

Finding footing on the farm

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Kimberley Hart had harbored a secret from her husband for a few months when she finally just blurted it out: She wanted to leave behind their life as Brooklyn artists for literal greener pastures. She wanted to be a farmer.

To her surprise, he said yes without pause. The next step was harder.

"I thought, 'Oh, now I have to figure out how to actually do this,'" she recalled.

That was 2009. In January, after years of preparation, Hart and her husband, Thad Simerly, signed a lease on 8.5 acres of farmland in Red Hook, Dutchess County. Last month they planted their first seeds in its soils. Starling Yards began its first season as a working farm.

Hart and Simerly are two in a new breed of farmer. They have left behind cities for life on the farm, following the growth of a local food movement and an idealism rooted in books such as Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma."

Starting a farm was an undertaking more difficult than the pair imagined, despite its present popularity.

First, there was the basic question of how to farm. At a conference on sustainable food, shortly after she began considering becoming a farmer, Hart recalled her question to panel of farmers.

"I remember asking, 'Can you be 40 and start a farm without really knowing anything?' " she said.

The next hurdles they faced were trickier: How to get land, how to pay for the land and then how to pay for thousands of dollars in tools and equipment necessary to farm that land.

"Things seemed secret," said Hart, one day in February, when she was deep into planning what to grow, plotting out planting schedules in Excel. "It was like, how do you get a farm?"

In 2011, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack called for 100,000 new farmers, recognizing a need to replace the country's aging agricultural population. The 2012 Census of Agriculture, slated for release next February, will shed light on how close to the nation might be to the goal.

Starting a farm is an expensive, difficult and high-risk undertaking, an occupation where hardship often seems to outweigh reward.

Hart and Simerly are not hardscrabble young grads or late-in-life back-to-the-landers with savings tucked away from corporate careers. They are in their 40s, with a 2-year-old son and little saved for retirement. They need their turn at farming to be more than an experiment – they need it to be successful.

Among the largest obstacles that most new farmers face are access to land, start-up capital and education. In a 2011 survey by the National Young Farmers' Coalition of 1,300 farmers and aspiring farmers across the country, 78 percent of respondents noted access to capital as a major challenge they face, followed by land access (68 percent), health care (47 percent) and access to credit (40 percent). A 2012 study of New York state farmers by GrowNYC found that the challenges facing start-up farmers were roughly the same.

"There's a lot of risk of involved," said Lindsey Lusher Shute, director of the Young Farmers' Coalition.

At the same time, and as New York state places increasing economic emphasis on agriculture, the state's farming population has grayed. The value of agricultural production in New York was over $5.26 billion in 2011, according to the USDA.

"The average age of a farmer in New York is 56," said Congressman Chris Gibson, a Kinderhook-based Republican and sponsor of the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Opportunity Act of 2013, which seeks to add provisions for new farmers to the Farm Bill. "We know that if the average age is 56, we have to inspire a whole new generation to come to the farm."

"While farming in New York is mainly a small, family business, its economic impact is great," the report concluded.

Hart and Simerly approached their own foray into farming with a methodical and studious intensity. Hart found an apprenticeship at the Queens County Farm Museum, a working farm and museum in New York City where she tended livestock, vegetables and otherwise got a crash course in farming. She took classes through the Cornell Cooperative Extension and completed the Hudson Valley Farm Beginnings program at Hawthorne Valley Farm in Columbia County. When they felt like they had a handle on the basics, the couple sublet their Williamsburg loft and took a summer apprenticeship at Sawkill Farm in Red Hook.

The couple started looking to buy a modest plot of land nearby, when they quickly realized there was "absolutely no way we could afford to buy more than five acres," Simerly said.

Farmers in New York often compete with second-home seekers for property, making land often unaffordable. A real estate listing for a farm and "extraordinary estate" in nearby Union Vale on landandfarm.com priced the property at more than $25,000 an acre. A 46-acre vegetable farm in Orange County was listed for $695,000. Properties Hart and Simerly looked at were between $300,000 and $500,000, though they could hardly afford $250,000.

After two years, they settled for a lease, looking for a place where they could raise livestock – the type of farm operation for which they had trained. That plan, too, quickly fell apart, along with their first lease deal.

Eventually, the pair worked out an arrangement with a local family who lived on a plot of prime farmland that had not been farmed in recent history. Instead of livestock, they would grow vegetables, but at last a farm they had. The rent, for 8.5 acres out of 140, was a modest $1,200 a year, and they kept their cost of living low by renting an apartment where they were also property caretakers for a reduction in rent.

Hart and Simerly were lucky – a $20,000 loan from a family member took care of most other start-up costs. Simerly would also continue working doing home plaster restorations – and commuting to the city – to keep the family afloat.

"This place doesn't have infrastructure for farming," Hart said in January, surveying the snow-blanketed property and making a long list of all the work to be done.

In February, they were optimistic, but starting to worry about cash flow.

"I think money stress is basically the theme for the week," Hart relayed in a phone call. Otherwise, planning was going smoothly.

As the thermometer climbed, so too did their anxieties. By March seeds were ordered and their build-it-yourself greenhouse had arrived, but weather had delayed some infrastructure projects and had made others more expensive. A plan to debut the farm with a small CSA had long been scrapped – soil tests revealed undesirable nutrient levels might make for an unpredictable first crop. A network of other local farmers was an invaluable resource, but even with the help of veterans some things seemed impossible. For instance, the couple needed to lime their soil, but seemingly no one would do the job for such a small farm operation. Finally they coaxed a professional to do it outside business hours, at night and in the dark.

"It's a huge learning curve," said Hart. "All of this seems like, 'How do you figure this out?' "

By April, it was clear that the first year would be an experiment. The couple had poured hours into removing large rocks by hand from just a few rows of one rocky field, where they planted their first crops. They would grow what they could in their imperfect soil, sell it at farm stores and restaurants, and just hope to make enough to pay for their son's day care.

Simerly was also spending long stretches in the city, working to pay their bills.

"He doesn't come home," said Hart. "It's hard"

In past decade, more and more resources have arrived in New York state to assist beginning farmers. Programs such as Hudson Valley Farm Beginnings and Cornell's Northeast Beginning Farmer Project exist to teach farmers basics. The Northeast Organic Farming Association connects new farmers with farm apprenticeships and mentorships. Stone Barns operates a yearly new farmer's conference, which draws close to 400 attendees – last year, it sold out in 36 hours.

Most of those programs received some funding from the first Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program, part of the 2008 Farm Bill.

Still, "there is a lot of opportunity for New York state to do more for beginning farmers," said Lusher Shute. The Young Farmers Coalition has advocated for policy initiatives to make land more affordable, health insurance and credit more accessible, offer student loan forgiveness and provide new farmers more educational opportunities. Some programs that already exist for new farmers are also at risk, if funding is not renewed for them in the new Farm Bill.

Luke Deikis and his wife Cara Fraver are entering their third season farming, at Quincy Farm in Easton, Washington County.

Their first year was awful: a record snowfall prompted record spring flooding. To stay in the black, Deikis commuted to New York City to work doing freelance lighting for television; Fraver worked full time as a waitress.

They have a handle on most things now, but "we are stressed now about balancing work and life," said Deikis. He still needs to do the occasional freelance job.

Hart first became interested in food and farming while working as an art teacher in New York City public schools. She watched how her students ate, and found "the basic relationship with food was really disturbing."

When the couple decided to start a family, they also decided they wanted a lifestyle change – for their son, Luke, to have two parents around, a big yard, a country life.

"That has not totally worked out," said Hart. "It's this idealistic thing that's been whittled down."

In May, the farm was lucky to survive a week of wacky weather – high heat and thunderstorms – largely unscathed. Their first field crop began to sprout: three rows of fava beans that would act as cover crop, helping to nourish the soil for other planting later in the season.

She had fretted extensively over their fate: the potassium levels in the soil were high, birds kept digging the seed out of the soil, and really, she still wasn't always sure of what they were doing.

When the beans sprouted, it was cause for much excitement – a moment that underscored why it was that they chose this struggle to begin with. At the end of a very long day, they are doing something that they love.

"Everything is so unknown. Maybe it's all going to die," she sighed, then continued. "Or maybe it will be great this year."